Opportunities for professional women in social welfare

Winston again emphasizes opportunities for professional women. According to Winston, when she was the North Carolina Commissioner for Public Health, other women occupied top administrative positions as well. For Winston, this served as evidence of opportunities for professional women and was demonstrative of a female professional network.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Ellen Black Winston, December 2, 1974. Interview G-0064. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

ANNETTE SMITH:

Well, one thing that I've gathered from talking about your success as
commissioner, is that you found it very important to be a southern lady
at all times.

ELLEN WINSTON:

I wouldn't use the word, "Success", in referring to my
efforts. I always felt that there was a certain image to which one had
to try to live up to and that image certainly included how one looked.
One of the problems of so many young professionals today is that they
don't look like professional women and in fact, seem to feel resentful
over that approach. I also was careful in a good many areas, because I
felt that the Commissioner of Public Welfare had to live up to what I
would designate as the accustomed standards.
In the Department in Raleigh, of course, we had women carrying much more
responsibility relatively than I think they do today. We had a woman
heading up our child welfare program. We had a woman heading up our
program for the aging. We had a woman responsible for enforcing the
licensing laws. A good part of this time we had a woman directing our
research. One of the early people that I brought in, by the way, was a
director of research, because I just couldn't see administering the
program without more facts. So, I would say that women had a rather good
deal.
My experience has been that it is the women administrators that give the
other women the breaks. Certainly, I found this to be true when I was in
Washington.